Word: oscars
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...exquisite, sophisticated pianist, perhaps jazz's greatest, may have acquired some of his famed precision from the rough-hewn lessons of his father, who was known to beat him when he hit a wrong note, but Canadian Oscar Peterson's technical skills were only part of his genius. Peterson, whom Duke Ellington called the Maharaja of the Keyboard, took the piano to new heights as soloist; sideman (for Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie); composer; and leader of the Oscar Peterson Trio, which some call jazz's finest. He could hold back, then rip down the keyboard at lightning speed...
Every year, after the nation drags itself through the four to eight hours of an Oscar ordeal, critics offer suggestions for spiffing up the show. Cut the production numbers. Cut the technical awards. How about if the nominated actors perform scenes from their movies, and the viewers vote by phone, American Idol-style? Maybe Clooney and Daniel Day-Lewis, this year's front runners for Best Actor, could be put in a cage and have an ultimate fight...
...might think the highest-rated Oscar telecasts are in years when there's a close contest in the major categories, as with Crash and Brokeback Mountain in 2006. Uh-uh. It's the runaway years, when billion-dollar blockbusters like Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King get what is essentially People's Choice awards. Moviegoers who are TV viewers don't want horse races; they want coronations--validation that Hollywood is ready to honor the movies they love...
There aren't likely to be any honorable blockbusters this year. Instead, the nominees for the Best Picture Oscar are almost sure to include No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, two ultraviolent dramas much loved by critics but too weird to be crowd pleasers. Atonement could fill the period-film slot; Sweeney Todd might get a nod for its crimson passion. With all this caviar on offer Oscar night (if there is an Oscar night), the beer-and-nachos audience will stay away, and the ratings will suffer VDD--viewer deficit disorder...
...this wasn’t just another Yule Ball. Inside the center’s screening room, two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington premiered his latest film, “The Great Debaters,” portraying the success of a black college’s debate team over Harvard amid the segregation of the 1930s...